Classical musicians tend to play it safe, and that’s not meant as criticism.

The goal in this art form is to manifest the ideas of the masters, to render their meticulous works with the precision they deserve. Beethoven and Handel supplied their own nuances, thank you, no uppity 21st century violinist needs to add her own.

In that context, Avi Avital’s new renditions of familiar Bach compositions is downright radical. Avital, who plays the mandolin (the mandolin!), has transcribed the works to suit his own instrument, stealing the lines played for three centuries now by dedicated violinists, harpsichordists and flutists.

In his 12th season at the helm of the Boulder festival, Christie — whose contract has been extended to 2017 — has lined up an inventive progression of orchestral and chamber music, world music, jazz and family programs through Aug. 3.

First up was pianist Simone Dinnerstein, opening the festival on June 24 with an elegant, deeply-felt interpretation of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 19.

That said, the nuanced musical minims that distinguish her exceptional construal of Bach’s Goldberg Variations and Partitas were largely absent in her delivery of the concerto’s decidedly Romantic-era temperament.

Simone Dinnerstein titles her new album of Bach and Schubert after a poem, rather than a piece of music and it’s a solid concept. The verse is by Philip Larkin and it gets at the greater meaning of our actions, the things we imply if we don’t come right out and say.

It sets a nice tone for the music. In these piano recordings of these well-known pieces, Dinnerstein’s suggest there’s more at play than the notes on the page. Her take is dramatic, but not in that bang on the keys kind of way. Rather, she imbues each note with a gentle importance. She annunciates them, the way old Hollywood actresses delivered their lines.

The first 5 minutes of this album are irresistible as Dinnerstein swoons over the opening of Bach’s Partita No. 2 in C Minor. The romance continues solidly though through Schubert’s Four Impromptu’s and back to Bach for his Partita No. 1 in B-flat Major.

This is a gentle recording, though not background music. It draws you in. It is Bach personalized. Very, very personalized.

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